Preface to the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra

Calligraphy by Su Shi, Magistrate of Dengzhou

The Lankavatara Sutra—a scripture spoken by the ancient Buddhas, supremely subtle, the foremost and ultimate true meaning—is thus called the "Buddha's Heart-Mind Chapter." Patriarch Bodhidharma entrusted it to the Second Patriarch, saying: "I have observed all the teachings in China; only the four fascicles of the Lankavatara can serve to seal the mind." From patriarch to patriarch, it was passed down as the essential mind-dharma. Like the medical classic *Classic of Difficult Issues*, every sentence holds principle, every word contains a method. Later generations of enlightened ones will comprehend it with spiritual clarity—like a disk rolling a pearl, or a pearl rolling on a disk—nothing is impossible. But if someone, in pursuit of novel ideas, discards the old learning as useless, they are either foolish and ignorant, or simply arrogant. In recent years, students each follow their own teacher, insisting on convenience and shortcuts. Grasping a single phrase or verse, they claim to have fully realized and proven it, to the point where even women and children clap and laugh, competing to speak of the joy of Chan. The lofty seek fame, the base seek profit; the ripples and remnants spread everywhere, and the Buddha-dharma grows faint. This is like a vulgar village doctor who, without studying the scriptures and treatises, directly hands out prescriptions to treat illness—not that he never hits the mark. But when it comes to facing a disease and immediately, upon contact, determining life or death with certainty, he cannot be mentioned in the same breath as one who understands the scriptures and has studied the ancients. Ordinary people, seeing only his occasional success, sometimes swifter than the ancients, then conclude that the *Classic of Difficult Issues* can be mastered without study—how mistaken that is!

The *Lankavatara Sutra* is profound and mysterious in its meaning, yet its language is terse and archaic. Some readers cannot even parse its sentences, let alone grasp its deeper meaning through the words, and then transcend meaning to awaken the mind. This is why the sutra has been neglected in the world, nearly lost, and only barely preserved.

Zhang Andao, the Grand Guardian and Duke of Leshan, possessed a vast mind and attained the pure enlightened awareness. During the Qingli era, when he served as the governor of Chuzhou, he visited a monk’s dwelling and happened upon this sutra. As he held it, he felt a sudden familiarity, as if recovering a long-lost treasure. Before he finished opening the scroll, his lifelong karmic obstacles melted away like ice. Examining the brushstrokes closely, he saw that the handwriting was unmistakably familiar—feelings of sorrow and joy overwhelmed him. From that moment, he was liberated and realized the truth. He often used the first four verses of the sutra to illuminate the essential teachings of the mind.

I, Su Shi, have studied under the Duke’s guidance for thirty years. This year, in the second month, I passed through the southern capital and visited him at his private residence. The Duke was then seventy-nine years old—his illusions had dissolved completely, and his enlightened radiance shone perfectly and whole. I, too, had grown old amidst hardship, with all my worldly thoughts turned cold and dead. The Duke saw in me a worthy student, so he gave me this sutra, along with thirty thousand coins to have it printed and distributed throughout the Jiang-Huai regions. But the Zen Master Liaoyuan, the Abbot of Gold Mountain and Buddha Seal, said, “Printing and distributing is finite; carving it on wooden blocks is infinite.” So I wrote it out for carving, and Master Yuan sent his attendant Xiaoji to Qiantang to find a skilled craftsman to engrave the blocks. Thus, the sutra became a permanent treasure of Gold Mountain Monastery.

On the ninth day of the ninth month in the eighth year of the Yuanfeng era.

Lankavatara Sutra, Chapter 1

Translated by the Indian Tripitaka Master Guṇabhadra of the Song Dynasty